The justice and development party (AKP)

Abstract

By actively supporting Turkey's EU membership process, the AKP had placed itself in the democratization wagon and had thereby gained the sympathies of the US and European capitals. This was the most secure way to counterbalance the military, which carried out a 'postmodern coup' in February 1997. Erdoğan openly declared that the AKP was not Islamist but was rather a conservative democratic party. The question is, had the AKP elite truly internalized the new discourse of democratization or was it just a Machiavellian strategy of deception? They were neither committed democrats nor inflexible Islamists with a hidden agenda. Having opened the Pandora's box, they were not ready to deal with the new actors that came on the scene with their diverse and sometimes clashing demands.